Well the story goes: I live on the Eastern Shore of Mayland and was born in 1978. I was always a baseball kid...Cal Ripken Jr. all day, every day was the only thing about sports i liked till... Circa Mid 80's: My grandmother in PA was always smitten with Joe Willie and has always been partial to the Jets. Every summer I go up there she always had Jets trinkets (magnets, newspaper clippings.....) around, which she always gave for me to take home. My grandfather was a wrestling coach at the local high school and helped in a summer wrestling camp up near Sunbury, Pa.( about 50 miles from State College) in 84-86 time frame where a Penn State Tight End and then current Jet Mickey Shuler came to speak at. He got me a autographed pic of Shuler. "Adrian, Keep the Faith!"...Mickey Shuler It was my first autograph and I absolutely cherished that sheet of paper. The first Jets game I remember seeing was on my old B&W TV in my bedroom. It was a Monday Night Football game in the 1987 against the Seahawks, thought it was so cool to see the team of the guy i got my 1st autograph from(I was 9)....BTW, a couple weeks later I watched Bo Jackson's famous 91 yard run. When I really started getting into the Jets it was the early 90's during the 1-15 days of losing Jets football but I stuck with them and still loved them. Wayne Chrebet helped me from straying during the bad years...a lil white kid who made every 3rd down conversion thrown his way. Also my first Jersey. I was 5 when the Colts left town...don't really remember it. Hated the Redskins colors....remember I was a kid at this time. That autograph and my Grandmother were the biggest Jets influences in my life at that point and its stuck ever since. How I became a Jets Fan. If any other out of town Jets fan would like to share their story on how they became a Jets fan please do so.
What do you think I would be interested to know what Jets fan think of their new stadium set to open next year. From the shots I have seen it looks very similar to Giants stadium it is replacing. Also what happen to the Jets getting their own stadium in NY? Also, given NY wants to hold a SB, why wasn't a domed stadium built?
Look up in the sticky section above and you will see a thread about the new stadium. Hundreds of pages but you can get the gist of it there.
I always think about the unsung guys on the team back when I first started watching... Guys like Nuu Faaola, JoJo Townsell, Johnny Lynn and not so unsung like Johnny Hector, "The Flying Hector" me and my brother called him as he always seemed to launch himself at the goalline.
And on that note I always held out hope for another back who was a first rounder, Blair Thomas. At least he did something, not much, but something.
there ya go......JoJo Townsell, too funny...........I go back to the days of Scott Dierking and Kevin Long.........wow i'm getting up there
Hey JoJo was a pretty good third WR. This thread just brings up memories of those guys, I don't have quite the history rooting for this team that you do though. I can only read about those days in books.
Speaking of that era...I would say Kyle Clifton was won of my favorites. The guy seemed to be in on every tackle! I was also a big McMillan/Hasty fan.
My father's friends had season tickets to Shea and talked him into getting some and bringing me, I was about ten I guess. Went for a few years and they have always been my team. Thanks Dad!!
Very cool story..nothing like an autograph as a kid to get you liking a team or player. I became a fan in 1982 when my cousin married Wesley Walker. My dad came home with all these autographs for me from guys that were at the wedding...I was 7 and that was it I was hooked!!
Like the OP, i was always a baseball guy. Florida Marlins was everything to me back then, and i never really payed much attention to football. It wasn't until that magical 2002 season when this certain backup QB from Marshall university was put in the starting role. Its been history since then.... Now im a die hard fan.
